Transcription
Happy Sunday, everyone. Today we're addressing the question of what happens to your kids when they abandon the gospel, when they leave the faith, and if we are sealed as a family, if we are sealed to them, is there any protective power that is afforded to our children as a result of that sealing? More particularly, what did Joseph Smith have to say about that potential protective power of sealed parents with their children who stray from the faith?
To begin, let's talk about the issue itself, which is a significant issue of young people leading the church. There are many families who are dealing with this in a very real and present way. Many parents who are young, teenage, and also certainly adult children who are making decisions to disbelieve the gospel of Jesus Christ. This, of course, is very heart-wrenching. It's very difficult. It touches most families, probably. It's touched our family. It's something that a lot of parents struggle with, and parents have often found comfort in this quote we're going to talk about from Joseph Smith in a moment.
First, I want to, though, mention that it's difficult to obtain data on how the inactivity rate of young people in the church is fluctuating. What we do have, and I'm sure I'm going to get some flack for sharing this, just as in a past musing, when I shared a similar clip, I got some flack from folks who felt like I should not share this video. This comes from the Mormon leaks videos that years ago someone posted on YouTube. I don't know how they got it, but they got access to some videos in which church leaders were being briefed on various issues. The clip I shared at the time, I believe it was the one where they were talking about their fight against legalizing marijuana, among other things. In this particular video, this was in 2008, and it was a presentation by a few individuals, including now Elder Renlund, but also Alan Wilkins in particular, who at the time was a BYU professor, is a former mission president. And they were talking about this precise question. What is happening with the young people in the church? How many of them are leaving the church, leaving the gospel, and no longer active or believing or participating? Let's watch a couple short clips.
"This is an age group, the 20s, the young single adults, where people are most likely to be inactive in churches. This is true across North America, but it is also true in the church, and we want to talk about some of the reasons for that. What we've noticed is that church activity begins to decline in the teenage years and continues to decline into the 20s. The current activity rate for young single adults in North America is 30%, 20% internationally. It's about 25% worldwide."
Okay, so what's notable, of course, about that is that they're observing 17 years ago, nearly two decades, that church activity begins to decline, not among the young adult cohort, but as teenagers. And then it continues into the 20s. I was very surprised, I don't know. It was certainly remarkable that the percentage rates were as low as they were, that in North America, young single adults, only 30% of them are active, 20% of them internationally. My theory, again, you can't really find data on this because the church is not publicly sharing it. I theorize that those percentages have decreased in the past nearly two decades. So, of course, this is back in 2008 from the video. And, you know, the church's internal research shows that most young members who leave are doing so starting as teenagers.
So throughout the video, they're talking about potential solutions to the problem. How do we engage these, you know, young people? They focused on, let's improve our record keeping so we can get better data. They talked about young single adult wards and how we can change them and modify how these people are engaging in the gospel through the church. Lacking from the video, at least, you know, what I didn't really observe was any discussion about, like, why do these young people say they are leaving? What are the reasons for which they're making the choice? It was just lamented that it's happening. What does the church as an institution need to kind of bureaucratically rearrange to improve the numbers without really digging into some of the cultural trends, the slow scene of the world, the challenges, the concerns about gospel questions, transparency, history, whatever. Right. Didn't really have that.
What's very clear, though, again, is that this is a tough issue for folks. This isn't an abstract statistical analysis in the aggregate to talk about the global church and how youth rates of activity are declining. This is an issue where parents worry about, in a very real and raw sense, the eternal implications of the choices being made by their children. And these parents, believing in the gospel, aspire for an eternal family. Families can be together forever. And we've been sealed in the temple. And that longing and that hope leads to, I think, you know, a lot of heartbreak when your children make choices at odds with what you aspire to as an individual and what you aspire, what you hope that they would aspire to.
So let's dig into the comforting promise that many people, many parents in these cases have found from Joseph. So this quote appears, among other places, in teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith. Right. This authoritative record of here's what Joseph has said. I've shared in past musings that there are certainly a small handful, if not more, that are misrepresentations or, you know, fabrications potentially of what Joseph actually said. Now, this record, teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith, was compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith, who was Joseph's great nephew. So Joseph's brother, Hiram, his son was Joseph F. Smith, who, of course, became church president. And then thereafter, Joseph Fielding Smith. This book was compiled during Joseph Fielding Smith's service as a church historian and recorder.
Here's the quote: "When a seal is put upon the father and mother, it secures their posterity so that they cannot be lost, but will be saved by virtue of the covenant of their father and mother."
So, again, this appears in the authoritatively titled and published by, you know, the, well, I guess it was probably Deseret book, but, you know, it had the imprimatur of a church approval that Joseph Smith said this. And that is very comforting to parents on its face. Right. When you're sealed, it secures your posterity so that they cannot be lost, but they will be saved by virtue of the covenant of the mother and the father. That's very reassuring. That's like profoundly, oh my gosh, are you kidding me? Like as long as me and my husband or me and my wife or whatever are, are righteous and abide by our covenants that our children will be secured.
That was built upon that quote by Elder Orson Whitney, who several decades later said the following. "The prophet Joseph Smith declared, and he never taught more comforting doctrine, that the eternal ceilings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them. For valiant service in the cause of truth would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of divine providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They have to pay their debt to justice. They'll suffer for their sins and they may trade a thorny path. But if it leads them at last, like the penitent prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father's heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children. Hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God."
So that's Elder Orson Whitney attributing the substance of that quote, not necessarily its text verbatim, to the prophet Joseph Smith, calling it, of course, a comforting doctrine. Now, that comforting doctrine, that quote from Joseph Smith has been repeated by others. For example, here's then Elder Faust talking about it. "I believe and accept the comforting statement of Elder Orson F. Whitney. The prophet Joseph Smith declared, and he never taught a more comforting doctrine, that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and divine promises made to them for valiant service in the cause of truth would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity." It was also mentioned in a 2002 Ensign article titled, Hope for Parents of Wayward Children, in which this alleged quote from Joseph Smith appears, among others, talking about this issue and building up parents with this hope that their own righteousness and honoring their temple covenants will allow the sealing power to somehow bind and secure and save their children.
Now, the question we have to address is, did Joseph actually say that? Is this something that actually came from the founding prophet of the restoration of the gospel, the first president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? What is the authenticity of this statement? Let's go first to Elder Bednar, who about a decade ago in General Conference talked about this quote. "The statements by Joseph Smith and Orson F. Whitney are construed by some members of the Church to mean that wayward children unconditionally receive the blessings of salvation because of and through the faithfulness of parents. However, this interpretation is moderated by the fact that the most complete account of the prophet's sermon was not available to church historians at the time they compiled an amalgamated version of his teachings from the notes of Willard Richards and William Clayton."
Okay, so he's giving a bit of a qualification here. There's this interpretation that's based on an incomplete account that we're getting from Richards and Clayton, but there is another more complete source from Howard and Martha Coray in which Joseph is shown to have qualified his statement to make the promised blessings conditional upon the obedience of the children. So in their version, it says, "So there's a qualified statement in what Bednar calls a more complete account that at the time was not available to church historians who are authoritatively using Richards and Clayton as these sources and thereby instituting this false warped version of what Joseph actually said." Yet Joseph Fielding Smith puts it into the authoritatively titled teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith And on and on and on and on over the years, people think that Joseph actually said that when that was not quite so.
Now this, of course, makes us question and wonder how many other things do we believe that such and such a person said? I mean, not just Joseph. I mean, Jesus, right? The Gospels were written later. You have all of these records that come much later. How many things are like... And Jesus said precisely this, you know, in this order, in these words, or Old Testament prophets where their stuff is being, you know, translated and transcribed through scribes and you play the telephone game and changes are made. Like, how much of what we believe to be from God or to be from prophets and so forth is like not quite accurate. It's very interesting. Especially, think of the Joseph Smith translation, right? He went through the scriptures with the intent, the Bible, with the intent to correct many of the things that were in there. And back to this question of Willard Richards and William Clayton, these guys are the source of a lot of stuff, particularly polygamy. And so if there's other historical things here, Bednar is like, nah, these guys had an incomplete account. This is not accurate. There's fortunately another source that more accurately describes what Joseph is doing. But then it causes us, or at least me, to question what else are we getting from Richards and from Clayton that might need to be, hmm, like, evaluated a little bit or have a little bit of skepticism about what we're getting from these folks if here we already have one example that Elder Bednar concedes is historically inaccurate. And then, of course, the Elder Whitney quote, Orson Whitney, comes like 80 years later, right? So when he's saying, oh, the Prophet Joseph Smith said this, it could be that he's remarking based off of this original quote that came from Richards and Coray, and he's just kind of, you know, referencing that and building upon it with this divine tentacles type of message. It could be that he's making a little bit more up on his own. Who knows? But he's coming almost a century later, so we have to stick with Richards and Clayton slash the Corays to say, what did Joseph actually say? And in that more complete quote that refers to the children who have not transgressed, that certainly, that inclusion is more consistent doctrinally, right? The second article of faith says that men will be punished for their own sins. And think of Alma 39. Alma is explaining to his son Corianton. He says, "But behold, you cannot hide your crimes from God, and except you repent, they will stand as a testimony against you at the last day. Now, my son, I would that you should repent and forsake your sins, and go no more after the lusts of your eyes, but cross yourself in all these things. For except you do this, you can in no wise inherit the kingdom of God. O remember and take it upon you and cross yourself in these things." So he's, you know, here telling his son, you have an individual burden. I, you know, and the prophet Alma, right? And I've taught you these things, but you have these crimes. You have to repent. Your transgressions will stand against you as a testimony. And unless you repent, you cannot inherit the kingdom of God. It's on you. You are an agent. You have this responsibility.
Samuel the Lamanite, preaching to the wicked Nephites in Helaman 14, said, "And this to the intent that whosoever will believe might be saved, and that whosoever will not believe, a righteous judgment might come upon them. And also, if they are condemned, they bring upon themselves their own condemnation. And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself. And whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself. For behold, you're free. You're permitted to act for yourselves. For behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge, and he hath made you free." Okay, so again, like Alma to Corianton, here Samuel the Lamanite is saying that when you are condemned, when you commit sin, you are bringing upon yourself a condemnation. You are perishing unto yourself. You're doing it unto yourself. This is about you. We don't have this notion of like, oh, hey, because someone else got sealed and was righteous, suddenly the divine tentacles wrapped around me and brought me into heaven, even though I didn't repent of my sins, right? It can't be like that.
And even though Faust quoted Whitney in his talk and said, I believe, you know, what was said, he also noted the following. "Mercy will not rob justice, and the sealing power of faithful parents will only claim wayward children upon the condition of their repentance and Christ's atonement." So again, it's on condition of repentance. In fact, when you go back to that Whitney quote, he says, right, that they will have to pay their debt to justice. They will suffer for their sins and may tread a thorny path. So kind of makes me wonder, did Whitney have access to the Corrie documents? And so he was seeing this more complete quote, but through Joseph Fielding Smith, we got the William Clayton and Willard Richards official history version. Nonetheless, Whitney has an element in there of like, it's not automatic. It's not just magical salvation for your kids just because you were sealed once upon a time. Even Orson Whitney is saying they may have to suffer. They may have to repent. Now he is leaning into this idea that the sealing power somehow, you know, is like a magnetic attractor of a sort, you know, to heaven for these wayward children. Nonetheless, he at least concedes like Faust does that it's only upon condition of their repentance.
It reminded me of this portion of the King Follett discourse that Joseph gave just prior to his death. He said, "I have a declaration to make in relation to the provisions which God made for every creature from before the foundation of the world to suit the conditions of man. What has Jesus said? There is a provision for salvation for him, either in this world or in the world of spirits, which is to me. Hence, God has made a provision that the spirits of our friends and every spirit in that eternal world can be ferreted out and saved unless he has committed that unpardonable sin, which can't be remitted to him, whether in this world or in the world of spirits. God has brought out salvation for all men unless they have committed a certain sin. Every man who has got a friend in the eternal world can save him unless he has committed the unpardonable sin. You can save any man who has not committed the unpardonable sin. So you see how far you can be a savior."
This is fascinating. But let's also note that it applies to everyone. This is not in a familial context. He's not saying parents can save your children. He's saying anyone can save anyone else. That there's this much broader opportunity and ability to be a savior to others, ferring them out and saving them. Right. Whether in this world or in the world of spirits, that God has provided salvation for all, for everybody. And that God has brought out salvation for all men. This very expansive notion, not of, you know, you're going to heaven, you're going to hell. Anyone who doesn't narrowly follow these, you know, particulars and do all these things and remember these handshakes and say all the right things and blah, blah, blah. Like the rest of you are going to hell. It's quite the opposite. Joseph is basically teaching that, like, everyone gets to go to a kingdom of glory. Everyone gets to go to what we'll call heaven. Right. It's a question of those three degrees and so forth of, you know, where you merit living, but that even in the telestial kingdom, a greater glory than anything we can even fathom right now. Everyone, basically, except for those who commit the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, gets to go to heaven. This very expansive theology offering salvation effectively to all. So in that sense, Joseph is saying, whether because of your sealing power or whatever, right, that you can save others, not just your kids. Again, he doesn't talk about it in that context. He's talking about it in a much broader neighborly context, sibling context, that we're all children of God and we can all help save one another.
Reminded me also of section 19 of the Doctrine and Covenants. In there we read, "it might work upon the hearts of the children of men altogether for my name's glory. Wherefore, I will explain unto you this mystery, for it is meet unto you to know, even as mine apostles. I speak unto you that are chosen in this thing, even as one, that you may enter into my rest. For behold, the mystery of godliness, how great is it! For behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for endless is my name. Wherefore, eternal punishment is God's punishment, endless punishment is God's punishment."
This is fascinating, right? Because the colloquial, conventional definition of eternal damnation or endless torment is what, you know, your typical evangelical, Protestant-type Christian believes that is hell, just weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and burning all day long and, you know, just horrible and misery, right? And God is saying, well, no, it's not endless torment. He specifically says it's not written anywhere that there shall be no end to this torment, which therefore implies there will be an end to the torment. You will suffer. He says there, "every man must repent or suffer, for I, God, am endless. There will be suffering. You do have to account and atone. You do have to to be judged for what you did, right? But the suffering is not endless, and it's not eternal in the sense that it is forever going on and never ending. He's saying that it is because of my nature, God, that it is called eternal punishment because I, God, am eternal. Therefore, it's synonymous with God's punishment. And it's called endless punishment because I am endless. So it's synonymous for God's punishment. And I find it interesting. Why use that language then? Because that's admittedly confusing because most people are just going to interpret it based on the commonplace understanding of what these words mean, right? But he says, again, in verse 7, he says, "it's written, eternal damnation, wherefore, it is more express than other scriptures that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men altogether for my name's glory." The way I read that is God saying, I let this interpretation go out there. I know that that's how people are going to understand it. It's more express, more, more explicit and harsh, you know, than other scriptures. But I'm doing it so that the children of men, their hearts can be impacted and open, that they can be, you know, like whipped into action, that they might realize, oh my gosh, I don't want that. You know, it's almost about, it's almost like some divine fear mongering, right? Where he's like, I'm going to tell you this really scary thing to induce you into repentance so that, you know, and he says, all together for my name's glory. I want to save as many of you as I can. I want to save all of God's children. Therefore, I'm going to call it this, I'm going to call it eternal damnation because I want it to work upon the hearts of the children of men. I want, I want people to feel that and, and be worried about that and have kind of a righteous fear and concern for, you know, endless torment, woes going forth, weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, right? I want people to not want that and therefore make good choices. Very interesting how the Lord is kind of giving us a little bit of insight into why those terms are used. But again, at the end of the day, right, basically trying to save everybody. It's for God's glory and he wants us to repent and there will be punishment, but it is not endless and it is not eternal. Therefore, it does have an end and therefore the people who suffer, whether in this world or the next, are saved. Again, here Joseph is revealing and restoring this expansive approach to salvation, very much at odds with and in contrast to the conventional corrupt Christianity that was surrounding the saints.
Okay, a few final points to wrap this one up. Again, I think the discrepancy between Richards and Clayton, what they wrote, what became the authoritative history of the church and the teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith, the difference between that or the discrepancy between that and the Coray records that Elder Bednar calls more complete, shows the need for careful research and a questioning of what we assume to be true just because it's in official sources and published by the church and it's in the history and all of this, right? Again, this doesn't relate just to this quote or just to this topic. It relates to so many other things where we have few limited records, non-contemporary records, right, that are written later. It again is an example to me that we need to be cautious in evaluating the traditions of our fathers and the claims made by such and such a person that Joseph Smith once said, right? We need to be a little bit deliberate and thoughtful about that.
Another thought I had is that, you know, Joseph, while he was alive, there were no ceilings of parents to children. So this quote becomes all the more interesting since Joseph was just sealing unrelated people together. And so there were, you know, eternal marriages, there were ceilings between husband and wife. And then as he talks about in his quote, it was thought and taught that that would kind of have a downstream binding effect on their children, their natural children, but that the ceiling during his time was not, you know, parents were not sealed to kids. It's more like a born in the covenant type of vibe, right? Whether your kids were born after your sealing or you were just sealed and that it was kind of implied that that potentially could pass to your kids. So really it was about the power of that sealing itself and its indirect impact on the kids. Kind of interesting that again, Joseph wasn't doing any family ceilings or parents to children. It was just between husband and wife.
Of course, we've talked about salvation. Exaltation is different. Nearly everyone will be saved. We talked about the three degrees of glory, section 76. And again, Elder Whitney saying either in this life or in the life to come, they will return. That there is a post-mortal opportunity for repentance, which we know about because we do baptisms for the dead and people who sinned against what limited light and knowledge they had in this life have the opportunity to make that choice and potentially suffer in some respect in order to have accountability for those sins and be able to then take advantage of baptism and the ordinances that are vicariously done on their behalf. So what a remarkable thing that God is effectively trying to save everyone. It stands in interesting, weird contrast to what Lucifer was saying in the premortal councils, right? Not one soul shall be lost. And here, Joseph is teaching from via the Lord, right? That, or the Lord is teaching via Joseph Smith that, uh, that some souls shall be lost. It's not, you know, choose me and not one soul that, that, that implies like, you know, salvation for everybody, even those who have committed this grievous, unpardonable sin against the Holy ghost, the sons of perdition. Uh, but, uh, that, that is wrong. You shouldn't redeem everyone, but Jesus Christ is redeeming almost everyone. Cause there's not many sons of perdition who are reaching that level about, uh, sinning against this, this knowledge that they have. And, uh, he has that quote where he says, like, it's as if you're denying the, the noonday sun as it shines down upon you. You're like, you have to be at that level of knowledge and understanding and then choose to go away from it. Very few people are at that level. Right. And so no, Jesus isn't saying not one soul shall be lost, but he's like, hardly any souls will be lost. Now everyone will have to suffer to varying degrees to, you know, justice has to be served and the atonement can cover that with mercy, but we're going to save almost everyone. And there's going to be these different degrees of exaltation and so forth, but it's amazing.
And the final point is that, you know, sealing, I think it really offers hope. It, it, it doesn't override agency, right? Children have to still choose repentance for the promise from Joseph Smith to hold, but the, the sealing is more providing like a, like a spiritual framework, not a free pass. It's not like your parents are sealed. Therefore, you know, like, of course not agency still applies. So is this still a comforting doctrine? I think so, but not just in a familial context, like Joseph was teaching the King Follett discourse. This is much broader than just parents to children, or even with the sealing, there's something more broad than that about Christ's ability to save and people's ability, whether in this life or the next Christ to be reclaimed and redeemed. That to me is a very empowering doctrine. It certainly is a comforting doctrine. We love our families. We want to live eternally with them, but there's just some interesting nuance here where it's, it's broader than that. And it's potentially outside of the family sealing context where Joseph is saying, the Lord is basically going to save almost everybody. And how wonderful it is that we can be vicariously saviors to other people and, and help them and, and, you know, help them along that path. So that is a comforting doctrine. That's a powerful, deeply Christian, amazingly merciful doctrine, uh, from, uh, from God to think about our wayward children, but our wayward, you know, siblings and uncles and coworkers and neighbors and friends and, and all the rest that there are choices being made right now. They do have agency. We might see them go off the path for years or decades or until they die. Uh, but that is not actually the end. And there is this post-mortal opportunity for progression and for redemption and therefore salvation. That is awesome. That is really, uh, interesting.
Okay. We'll wrap it there. I hope you guys have a great week and I'll see you next Sunday.